The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has completed a routine inspection of the organisation of work on preventing and detecting corruption in the activities of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine (SJA).
The SJA is a government agency that provides organisational and financial support to the judiciary, which necessitates compliance with anti-corruption standards in its work.
The audit showed active work of the SJA's anti-corruption commissioner, who, in cooperation with the NACP, introduced a systematic approach to implementing anti-corruption policies in local (appellate) courts by introducing the work of anti-corruption commissioners appointed from among court employees.
At the same time, a number of shortcomings were identified that negatively affect the effectiveness of the anti-corruption policy implementation in the body.
NACP noted a formal approach to the development of the anti-corruption programme and the lack of proper analysis of the sources of corruption risks. The programme does not contain a detailed description of the mechanisms and components of these risks, which is a consequence of the lack of a systematic analysis of sources of information on corruption risks. In particular, this includes the analysis of court decisions in cases of criminal and administrative offences, as well as disciplinary and civil liability against SJA employees, reports of the State Audit Service of Ukraine and SJA internal audit, which indicate the existence of systemic violations in software procurement.
As a result, corruption risks in the activities of the SJA have remained unchanged for years, despite the periodic prosecution of its employees.
The following example illustrates the ineffectiveness of corruption risk management in the SJA.
In December 2022, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) completed a pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings against the former head of one of the SJA departments and his accomplice, the head of a private company specialising, among other things, in the wholesale trade of computers, peripheral equipment and software. The investigation established that in 2016-2018, the defendants organised the procurement of equipment for the needs of the SJA, which, by its technical characteristics, did not meet the information security requirements that are mandatory when recording court proceedings. In total, according to the expert examinations, the SJA overpaid about UAH 53 million for the equipment supplied. Law enforcement also found out that the former official had legalised part of the proceeds of crime.
The results of this NABU investigation should have prompted the SJA to scrutinise the causes and conditions that contributed to the commission of a corruption offence related to procurement and to develop mechanisms to prevent the realisation of corruption risks.
An analysis of the results of public procurement by the SJA conducted by its territorial departments in 2023 shows that corruption risks in this area of the agency's activities continue to be implemented, effective measures to minimise them are not provided for in the anti-corruption programme of the agency, and the analysis of counterparties conducted by the authorised units of the SJA's territorial departments was superficial and did not prevent the conclusion of contracts with counterparties of doubtful reputation.
Thus, during the inspection, the NACP found that at the end of 2023, officials of the SJA and its territorial departments purchased equipment worth UAH 25 million from business entities that are related to the persons involved in the NABU investigation into the corruption offences mentioned above through their founders and participants.
At the same time, the procurement was carried out with restricted competition: the tender documentation included conditions that could only be fulfilled by a predetermined entity, which indicates a prior conspiracy and intent to commit corruption-related criminal offences.
The interest of the officials of the SJA territorial departments in winning the tenders of these legal entities is evidenced by the unlawful rejection of the offer of the procurement participant, which was confirmed by the decision of the Antimonopoly Committee (No. 332-r/pk-pz dated 05.01.2024).
Based on the results of the NACP's inspection, the Main Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine launched a pre-trial investigation into the fact that the SJA officials, together with the above legal entities, committed a corruption offence under Part 4 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (misappropriation, embezzlement or seizure of another's property by abuse of office).
If found guilty, the defendants in the case face imprisonment for a term of five to eight years with disqualification to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to three years.
At the same time, based on the NACP's materials, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine launched an investigation into possible anticompetitive concerted actions by the companies with which the territorial offices of the SJA entered into the above agreements.
The facts established by the NACP during the audit demonstrate the need to develop the anti-corruption infrastructure in the system of supporting the activities of the judicial branch of the SJA by introducing counterparty analysis, anti-corruption examination of contracts, qualitative research of the internal environment of the SJA and analysis of the mechanisms of committing corruption offences that are already the subject of court proceedings.
For reference.
The Law of Ukraine ‘On Prevention of Corruption ’ provides for the functioning of certain anti-corruption institutions, mechanisms and tools in public organisations designed to prevent corruption. These include, first and foremost, the activities of the authorised unit for the prevention and detection of corruption, the existence of an effective anti-corruption programme, a corruption risk management system and a whistleblowing institution, etc.
The proper functioning of these components of the anti-corruption system and ensuring their maximum efficiency are subject to scheduled and unscheduled inspections of the organisation of work on preventing and detecting corruption, conducted by the NACP pursuant to clause 52, part 1, article 12 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Prevention of Corruption’ and the procedure approved by the NACP order.
